1.3 Getting the whole story from "the egyptian red book": general  (Page 2/7)

Upon his arrival in Khartoum in January of 1884, General Gordon took upon himself the additional duty of attempting to establish a stable government inSudan rather than simply rounding up the evacuees and departing, apparently counter to his military orders. Unable to establish a such stability or to convince theMahdi to accept a position of administrative power, General Gordon was faced with the choice of defending his position at Khartoum or surrendering the city entirelyto the Mahdi. Gordon chose to fight it out. The Mahdists began the siege on Khartoum in early March of 1884; it ended in January of 1885.

As the siege continued through the spring, Gordon regularly notified his Government of his situation and his needs. Gordon wrote that with a few thousandtroops the Mahdi could be easily crushed, but no troops were sent. The General maintained his defensive position at Khartoum through the summer and fall, receivingsupplies by steam ships sent down the Nile fro Egypt. It is believed that public opinion in Sudan began to sway toward sympathy with the Mahdi over the many monthsof the siege. Gordon repeatedly wrote that he feared the treason of those he had been protecting from the Mahdi as much as the man himself. In the end it was fromthe inside that the gates of the city were opened to the Mahdi in January of 1885, only a few days before the long-awaited arrival of the regiment of relief finallysent by the British Government to save Gordon. The British troops were greeted atthe gates of Khartoum by the declaration of the Mahdi's victory: the head of their General hoisted upon a pike at the city's gates. Some in Britain viewed Gordon as amarty; others contended that he disobeyed superiors and brought his fate on himself in the vain quest for glory.

Introduction